Odd Things

Just thought I would send out some of the fun pictures we have captured of our kids while the dorm kids are home with their parents. We are enjoying our break, but it will end in less than a week. We have enjoyed doing several things as a family, including sleeping in a tent(more on that later). Here Jayson is trying on Daniel Meade's not so small boots and looks like he is going to ride off into the sunset! Jayson is growing by leaps and bounds as you may expect. He talks all the time, although we don't know what his language is yet:) Right now, we are trying to potty train him and he is doing very well. He often comes to find us to tell us, "peepee" He is the little brother often when he pushes Mikaylah's buttons to get her all worked up. For the most part, they really enjoy one another, though. We enjoy sitting back and watching them play.

This picture was taken after our Hippo hunt. Mikaylah wanted to bad to climb a tree. I tried to get her to climb up herself and she tried. She got half way up and then got scared she was going to fall. So, I placed her up on the limb for this picture. Unfortunately, I must be a bit allergic to Mango because the next day, I had a rash all over my arms. Very itchy!

We thought you would also like to see what our kids do every night during bath time. They really like the suds as you can see. If we get called out by the dorm kids, we sometimes leave them to bath on their own. When that happens, we usually have lots of water in our bathroom, all over the floor. They really have fun!

Hippo hunting!

Mikaylah and I got to do some touristy things here in Niamey. We have not had the opportunity or the energy to go out and do a bunch of stuff like all the short term people here. With two little ones plus the high heat, it doesn't add up to a ton of fun. But, we have enjoyed some things together, like the zoo, the dunes and now...hippo hunting! Janice really wanted to go as well, but we were a little leary of taking Jayson out on one of these boats/canoes without a lifejacket. He would want to go in with the hippos.

It was a rather hot day, well over 100 degrees F, and there was no wind. The boat had a little cover on it, but that actually made sitting watching the hippos very hot. We came across this whole family of hippos all in one place. I took some pics with my digital, but the zoom isn't good enough. I got some great shots with my old film camera which I will post once I get those on a cd, if that is possible here. This family has 2 little ones and some great big pappa sized hippos, as Mikaylah would say.

As they sat there kind of being boring with only their snouts out of the water, the pappa hippo raised up as if we was going to go someplace. Man, was he huge! But, as quick as he came up, he sat back down. But then momma and poppa must have gotten bored because they kept yawning. Now, to watch a hippo yawn is kind of entertaining. You can always tell when a big one is coming because they open their mouths a little once, then close. Then open it again a little more, then close it. What a tease these guys were! But then they would open wide, as hippos do and hold it there as if pausing. I was actually able to get 3 or 4 pictures of one yawn with an old manual wind camera.

We were able to go with a couple who are engaged to be married soon. Daniel Meade is our math teacher here at Sahel Academy. He came out for 8 months to fill in for this year. His fiancee, Victoria Chick(yes, Vic Chick) was able to come out for a little while during her break at Moody to see where her man has been working. Mikaylah took a great liking to Victoria, as you can see from the photo. Victoria only got nervous once when the little hippo went under water and she wanted to know where it was going. Of course, you always hear of stories of hippo attacks. The mommy hippo kept a sharp eye on us, snorted a few times, but was content to stay put.

When I am able to get better photos of the hippos, I will share them with you. Really, those are hippos in the water there!

CHAMPIONS...again

So sorry a whole month has passed since the winning of our 2nd softball tourny this year. The seniors are very excited to be leaving Sahel as a 2 time champion. This most recent tourny took place in Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, just south of Niamey.

While it was hard to get motivated again for yet another tourny. As we began to assemble for practices, of course, the cool season ended and the dust rolled in. So, I had one question for the boys, "are we going to play to win this thing, or play to just have fun?" After a rather dramatic pause, one of the younger guys said, "I guess we have to go defend our title last October" So with that, we began to prepare. If anything could have gone wrong, it did. We lost almost every exhibition game we played. Our defense was bad, we weren't hitting and all of our heads were a bit down. However, there were two bright spots that I saw. First, the boys played better and better defense even in those losses. Second, Tim Smith, the campus ball player and home run hitter was back from furlough to work on the books here at school. However, he had the weekend off, conveniently, just to join the team.

So, on Friday, very early, we boarded the vans at 6am to head for Ouaga. Our trip was rather uneventful and we had the afternoon to rest and watch other teams play. Our first game was at 7am on Saturday..yikes. And it was against the team that beat us up consistently before the tourny. So, needless to say, our guys felt a bit intimidated by this team who could just flat out hit the ball and they had a great defense. True to the past weeks, they ran out to an early lead. I kept all the adults on our team on the bench so the guys could go beat their dads up in the game. We chipped away at their lead and got within 3 at the end, but dropped our first game. That left us with the realization that we had to win the other 3 games to get to the championship game.

It is amazing, that even though we lost that first game, that we actually gained confidence in our play because our defense started to dominate. "Your offense starts with defense" was one of our sayings, and the boys really concentrated on playing hard nosed D. We played another "embassy" team from Ouaga, a Burkina team and a little league team who were much larger than little leaguers I grew up with. They had beaten our guys in previous years at this tourny, so our guys exacted a bit of revenge this go around.

We woke up Sunday ready to go at it again, knowing we play one game at 8 for a chance to make it to the championship game against the same team we lost to earlier. While it took an inning or two to wake up, we had no problem getting to the final game. What fun this was going to be. As a coach player, it was so hard not to be in the outfield. I actually rode the bench and didn't do a good job. I think the boys took 10 years off my life. The first 2 innings saw the same team hit the ball all over the field, over our heads, in between us, for an 8-1 lead. We were visiting team, so we knew it had to start now. The third inning saw us score 3 runs, so the challenge was to put up a goose egg on their side. Wow! they did that for 2 or three innings while we scored 3, 2, 2 runs to tie the game at 8. Then we actually took a 2 run lead in the 6th, to see the Nomad's come back with 2 of their own in the bottom of the inning.

Now, one final inning, we must score and hold them to 0 if we want to win. Everyone was on the edge of their seat because this was a great game! great defense, offense, sportsmanship, etc. There were a few controversial calls, but even so it was great to see how easily they were resolved. God is good! Now, the drama begins.

Top of the inning, our lead off hitter was up, so the meat of our line up would have a crack at it. Trae starts out with a harmless fly out. Well hit, but right at him. Rufus gets on the way he seems to be able to get on all the time...with an error. He got on base 6 times with an error. By far, the most of anyone on our team. Then big Phil gets up and drives one over the left fielder's head, who misplayed it a bit, so it turned into an inside the park homerun giving us a 2 run lead. Not safe at all. We stranded another runner at third.

Bottom of the inning,..They have the bottom part of their line up coming up, so I think we should be able to get through these guys and win. However, they put the first two on with a single and a walk. Oh, no, I thought, here it goes. The big hitters are coming up with their special bat that hits the ball forever. Rufus, our pitcher was confident he could do it. He placed the ball all over the place and the first guy hit a hard smash right at the shortstop who made a clean pick up for an easy force at third. The second guy hit it almost the same place, but the throw wasn't on target, so our third baseman tried to keep his foot on the bag and get the ball. It dropped, but fortunately, we had a tall third baseman who laid on the ground fully extended to keep his foot on the base and reach for the ball just in time. 2 outs. Then the third guy hits the hardest in the gap between the short and third. Justin went after it with a dive, got it, and threw from his back to 3rd. Usually, when he does this, he throws wildly, but this throw was right on target and nailed down the championship for the Sahel Suns. My heart was rapidly beating and then went to celebrate with the boys in the middle of the field. That was the first time since 2001 since our school has swept these tournaments.

Enjoy the pics of the guys. I have included our two trophy's from NUTS(camel) and Sofanwet(turtle) which Jayson really likes!

Our Newest Blessing

All children are blessings, but our newest addition to the dorm is indeed a Blessing. Blessing is ten years old and her parents work at the leprosarium in Danja, Niger. (about a 12 hour trip by car from Niamey).


Blessing has two younger brothers, Favour just turned 8 in January and Goodness was just born in November. We discovered last week that Blessing's mom and her dorm mom share a birthday. So that was a fun discovery and I was able to remind Blessing to call her mother on her special day!
Our daughter Mikaylah told me yesterday on the way home from school that Blessing is her best friend. Indeed, Blessing has been a blessing to my children, she plays with both Mikaylah and Jayson and almost always has a happy spirit! Mikaylah spent the night in Blessing's room this weekend as her regular room mate is in Ouagadougou with Tim at the Softball tournament. We are so thankful for Blessing and ask that you will pray for her this week as she is our youngest dorm child and her adjustment to being away from her family has been difficult. (pictures to follow when Tim gets back from Ouaga, sorry Jenn, I am computer illiterate--you are lucky to get a posting!!)

School en francais!

Mikaylah started school the end of January. She LOVES it, for which we are so grateful! There are eight children in the class so the small class is perfect for her. We have noticed that she is much more confident in French now and almost eager to speak it!

Riding the Dunes

Jayson got down the dunes just fine, Tim had to help him back up!
For our last hurrah before school started again this year we took three vehicles, 8 kids, six adults and a picnic to the sand dunes just 10 km outside of Niamey proper.

These are a few of our favorite things...

Just thought you all would like to see our kids doing a few of their favorite things like eating a popsicle or an aibaga, as Jayson calls them.
Mikaylah helping Ladi make some rolls for supper. Mikaylah loves to roll things out and then roll up the cresent rolls. We love to watch her do things like this with such enthusiasm, although poor Ladi is slowed quite a bit when this happens!
And of course, Jayson being a boy. Notice where he is laying? Yes, he loves the dirt. He often has a clean shirt on for maybe 15 minutes before he is in the dirt or something:)

Yes, I am still blogging...

Got a little reproof today when asked on facebook if I still blogged, of course I blog, and then I saw that I have completely missed the entire month of December... oops. Well we do have the excuse that our lovely MAC died, yes, completely, however my Friend's sister had some extra room in her purse for a new hard drive and she was coming to spend Christmas in Niamey, so hurray, we are up and running again, albeit with out my pictures that we had taken... very sad about that, Tim had just downloaded 300+ pictures from the camera and poof, they are gone with the hard drive to hard drive heaven... Yes I call Cathy my Friend with a capital F because whenever she calls Tim doesn't say "Cathy is on the phone" he says, "your Friend is on the phone." and since she is a capital friend, she deserves the honour... I digress...
We had two thanksgivings, two Christmases and one happy new year since I last wrote, plus a tabaski and a Muslim New Year and Niamey's 50 anniversary... plus two visits to the clinic
(which is way better than the hospital) for stitches, one of our boys in the toe and my DH who sliced up two fingers. Chung and his room-mates, Josh and Daniel were playing in the bathroom, since it was Tabaski and so no school so what better place to play than in the bathroom, right? Mind you this was after trying to play baseball in the kitchen and I sent them outside, only to find them playing baseball in the living room, again I sent them outside, only to discover that they never actually made it outside... down the hall they were, of course playing in the boys' bathroom... (remember there is no school so I have to prepare lunch in the dorm and this is about 11 am). Okay time for a period, that sentence was WAY too long, sorry Dad. Any way, by climbing over the stalls Chung inadvertently stepped on the toilet paper holder and sliced his second toe, quite deeply... A quick call to Dr. Ace confirmed which clinic would be open on the Muslim holiday... a Christian clinic... they sent me to the pharmacy to get anesthetic and Tylenol and some antibiotic, when I got back to the clinic Chung was still waiting to be looked at... the doctor put in four stitches and taped him up... we got home about 2 in the afternoon... I don't even remember what Tim did for lunch... hmm I guess they survived... then two days later while hanging Christmas lights the ladder Tim was standing on slide out from under him and crashed through the living room window with Tim's left hand acting as a buffer for the ladder, he sliced his index and middle fingers like one would peel a banana... I was scared! Back to the clinic Alissa... Good thing I had a dry run on Monday and could do it again on Wednesday. My Friend came over to the dorm to keep the kids calm and help them clean up. I was so proud of how they all worked together to clean up the glass and blood and pray for Uncle Tim. Tim received about 15 stitches (should have been 45 in my estimation) and now, more than a month later he is starting to look more human and less "Frankenstein" like. We had a special dorm Christmas party where the biggest hit was the bubbles I got each of them... hmmm we also played a white elephant game, and four on the couch (girls won!) and watched A Charlie Brown Christmas... what a great bunch of kids we have... We said our goodbyes to our three Sim kids who are on home assignment in Australia for six months and will say hello to Nat and Blessing next week! We also said goodbye to our dorm grandma, Jean Campbell who was filling in for one semester teaching grade one and two and living in our dorm assistant's apartment. We also said goodbye to Miss Megan who helped Miss Kathryn cover our dorm on Tuesday evenings and Wednesday mornings.
Our kids both had fun opening presents. My mum and sister sent them new PJs for Christmas that arrived December 24!!! Yeay! Tim had taken some of the kids to Ouaga in Burkina Faso and did some shopping for them... balls and cars for Jayson, puzzles and kitchen dishes for Mikaylah who said she is sharing the plastic tools Jayson got! (btw, Jenn Jay already broke his drill :(...).
We packed bikes for them in August 2006 (Jayson still in utero) which they unwrapped the day after Christmas because they were so content with playing with their toys that we didn't push opening the bikes until the next day! We were invited out for dinner... because of our kids and not in spite of them!! very fun time with them and our kids almost fell asleep before we got home.
New years we played games before midnight then our night owl, Mikaylah came with us to the river to watch the fireworks from the hotels on the other side of the river! we put Mik to bed and stayed up talking to the wee hours of the morning...Jayson decided to hide some rocks in the tailpipe of Totman's Prado... diesel soot is pretty greasy! We had a group of Canadians stay in our dorm that night for the SIM conference and we have one more conference to go before school starts next Tuesday... Pray that our kids will arrive safely (two have already arrived, though they are still with their parents during the conference) and that all flights will go as planned. Happy 2009! PS I am still trying to post pictures but am having TROUBLE so please be patient...

Bonne Chance: Good Luck

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 at 4:54pm
Sorry about leaving everyone hanging... I didn't realize we would be without access to internet for such a long time... Last Wednesday, Dec 10, Tim was hanging Christmas lights in the dorm. The rickety old ladder slipped and Tim and ladder went through the living room window. His left hand was sliced very badly. I drove him to the clinic and he received 15 stitches. He should have had at least 40, but the attending nurse disagreed with me.... here we are a week later and his index finger looks not too bad but his middle finger still looks pretty bad. The worst thing was that after they stitched him up they wrapped up his finger with cotton guaze without any ointment, so the next day when he went to get his dressing changed the clotted blood got all ripped open again!!! This time we brought our own ointment and non-stick bandages curtesy of Dr Ace Cheung. That helped a little, Ace is thinking that he should regain use of his fingers, but no hand modeling in his future!!! Right now Tim is in Burkina Faso where he drove some of our dorm kids. Otherwise I would take a picture for you. When we were in the clinic the first time Tim actually asked if I had brought the camera!! Like I was thinking about that when my adrenaline was pumping!! good night! Thank you for your prayers, it looks like he will have frankenstein hands, but that at least he will be able to use them. He is doing pretty good with his right hand now (for those who don't know, Tim is left handed... figures, eh?)

The Terrible Twos!!

Yes, we have officially entered the Terrible Twos. I remember when my sister's boys were two and I thought, how can they get in to so much trouble?? We had a very mild daughter and now a sweet boy who has turned two and, is it possible?? Yes, he has changed into a hooligan over night!!
His birthday was November 16, we have been teaching him to say "I'm two". and it is all very sweet and lovable, but this is the same boy who threw a glass mug off the coffee table just to see what would happen (it broke into a thousand smithereens... is that really a word? smithereens, that is). He also opened the refrigerator took out a banana and the whole pitcher of orange juice and proceeded to pour it on himself and all over the floor. He put a chair up to the counter and put a stool on top of the chair and tried to climb up the shaky contraption! He jumped on the high jump mattresses that the P.E. dept had out and landed on the soccer goal (and gave himself a black eye--good thing he is a quick healer). He climbed up on the ping pong table and started throwing glass Christmas balls on the tile floor (well, in his defense, they were "balls") and he took baby Jesus out of the manger scene and tried to eat him! (just one little bite)... but he is a happy little guy, most of the time and he loves to give hugs and kisses... his little playmate, Arielle now calls all white boys "Jayson".... yes, he is famous! and TWO!

Hoola, or is it Hula?

We have discovered that our daughter is very tenacious. If there is something she wants to do she will keep at it until it is mastered. I thought that it only applied to whining and nagging until she gets her own way, but it also applies to the Hoola-hoop! Yes, our four year old has mastered the art of hula-hooping!! So I had to get her on video for your enjoyment! Hope this will load up! Sorry, we can't get it loaded up. Tim tried to shrink the pixels of the movie, but because we haven't bought all these fancy programs, we can't save the smaller video. Quick Time allows to do everything except save stuff just so we will have to buy from them. Now what kind of free trial is that? I feel another blog being born right now:)

Gooaaaaaaaal!

Ok, first off, so sorry for not updating for an entire month. Shame on us. I guess track and field day really dominated our time. More on that when I get some pictures. I do not have, unfortunately, pictures of this blog. My camera died just as I turned it on. bummer:( Anyway, last Saturday, I got to experience a soccer match like no other I have ever witnessed before. After teaching at KCS for so many years and watching game after game of soccer, I never really got the big deal of how popular of a sport it was to people, until now. Niger was playing Cote D'Ivoire, yes, an arch rival. In part due to the fact that Niger rarely wins and the Ivory Coast almost always wins.

We had been going to the Stadium for the last couple of weeks and had noticed that while we were all running around practicing for our track and field day, there was the national jr. soccer team also practicing. While we rarely mingled, I found out through the ones who could speak french that there was a game Saturday. However, noone could tell me what time and who. Finally, as we were walking out the door after our field day, I asked a man who was sitting near the door what time the game started. He told me, "Seize heure", like duh, man, what planet are you on, everybody knows when the biggest game of the year is to take place! I then asked him how much it would cost thinking it would be like 3-5, 000 francs, but he said with a big smile, "Mais, c'est gratuit. It was FREE! FREE! No way, this could not be. That would never happen in the states. To open the biggest stadium in Niamey(the only stadium) and have all those people come in, it would be a huge money maker...in the states. But, that is where things are different...they would rather have thousands of screaming, singing, clapping, and foot stomping fans than make the several thousand dollars they could have made. But, there was a catch. I thought, oh, oh, here it comes. The man said that we had to cheer for Niger, if we cheered for the Ivory Coast, it would cost us 5,000francs. I laughed and promised that I would cheer for them even though some of my kids who come from the Ivory Coast would not promise such loyalty.

Normally, the dorm likes to go the American Recreation center to play softball, swim and eat yummy food, but today, many of the kids were hesitating. I asked them if they would rather go see THE game instead. So, I ended up taking some kids to the rec because softball was just too strong of a force for them, but a few more stayed in the van to go see THE game. Kind of ironic, too, that we had THE GAME here just like in Columbus, Ohio, where another GAME was taking place. I digress.

We pulled into the parking lot with no trouble at all since we were a bit early. We walked into the stadium like any other and found some seats and immediately noticed two things. First, an entire section of the stands taken up by the military of Niger who were just having a great time in entertaining the crowd. They were all singing, dancing, moving, clapping all in unison and it was incredible to watch and listen to. The second thing I noticed was that as the sun was starting its descent behind the stadium, the shadows created shade, of course. The line of people in the seats perfectly followed the line of the shade. Incredible. Of course, us crazy white people? In the sun! Fortunately, that didn't last too long.

At four o'clock when I was told the game would begin, I was ready. Come on ref, lets get this game started, I thought. But, again, unlike the states, the four o'clock time was just posted to get everyone there by 4:30, the actual starting time. But, it was quite comical to watch the two teams warm up, sometimes all together, and sometimes not. The most comical time was watching the officials warm up. I could tell who the field judge was and who was going to be on the sidelines, just by the way they warmed up. They were almost in perfect unison, did the same thing back and forth across the field for most of the time between 4 and 4:30.

The pre game band as they were, was nothing like the marching 100. Those of you who are Buckeyes fans will know who that is. The notes I did hear didn't sound too bad, but I heard like one note before everyone in the stands began to scream wildly as, I can only assume, that their national anthem was being played.

Finally, 4:30 comes and I am getting a bit anxious because I thought that the game would be almost through the first half by now. I told the kids at the rec that I would come get them at 6 so I could watch the start of the other GAME on Armed Forces Network. THE GAME begins....it is soccer, I sit back and relax because it is soccer. I have never really enjoyed soccer because of all the scoring, or lack thereof, and the first half proved my point. These guys ran and ran and ran, working so hard to score, but didn't. What a waste, right? yeah, I know, they were just breaking them down for the second half of one score after another. But, we did get to see a bunch of guys carried off the field on stretchers, because the "EmT" squad had to do its job. After they carried them off, then the trainers worked on the players to get them back into the game. Of course, you still had your "flops" trying to draw fouls, as well. There was a lot of play at the opposite end of the field from where we were, but that was ok to see all those plays open up shots on goal that were either not taken quickly enough, or they missed. Niger most definately had the advantage in attempts on goal in the first half. I felt like the superior team was kind of dominated.

The second half rolls around and the crowd is getting a bit restless for a score. We have had several good chances and just could not capitalize. As this seeminglingly endless, scoreless game continued, the only entertainment became who had the biggest fight in the stands due to the people up top throwing things to the people down below, like water bags, bottles, etc.
So, about half way through the second half, it happened. Something worth seeing on the field. A player received a red card and was ejected from the game! Yes, a player from the Ivory Coast said something to the official as the official was going over to check on an injured player from Niger. The official whipped around as if someone had just slapped his face, threw up the red card and then his hand to signal the ejection. That was all right. I felt as if Lou Pinella himself was there! What excitement! As the fans were throwing things at this player as he tried to exit, my attention was not on the game. Oh, for instant replay because in the one moment I looked away from trying to will a goal, it REALLY happened. The team from Niger scored a gooaaaaaalll! I looked up just in time to see the ball leave the players' foot and go into the net.

What happened next was truly sensational. I thought that the people up top had no more water to throw down, but it looked as if a fire department had begun to spray the crowd down from outside the stadium. There were so many water bags and bottles tossed into the air and broken, that the spray from them all created this mist all over the crowd, who, by the way, was going crazy. The celebration from this one score lasted almost to the very end of the game. In fact, just as the crowd caught its collective breath, the game ended, thus sending the crowd into another frenzy. It was an incredible win for Niger! The amazing thing was through all this is that before the game ended, the ball boys began to pick up the water bottles and things from the track and give them back to the people in the stands so they could do it all again! I thought, " what are you doing? Are you crazy?"

Now, to conclude this rather long story of this milestone, leaving the stadium was another whole adventure. If you cannot read any longer, please come back to read about the leaving experience! I will post another story tomorrow with the exciting conclusion on my complete soccer experience! I am not sure that there is anything quite like it anywhere else!

P.S. By the way, I did make it back to the rec center for the second half of the other GAME where there was plenty of scoring...at least by the Buckeyes! Go Bucks!

First Day of School

November 3rd was Mikaylah's first day of school. She was pretty excited. she picked out her dress (the uniforms are not finished yet) and packed her backpack the night before. Ethan, a little boy from her Sunday School class is also starting with Mikaylah, here is a photo of them, it was bright so difficult for Mikaylah to look up!

Well the disappointing thing was that even though all the kids were there and all the teachers were there, they could not legally open school because they were lacking one more paper... so the kids played on the playground for an hour and the other parents and teachers and we prayed for a while, then we went back home. Please pray with us that the authorities will sign the last paper. They are stalling because the pre-school is a Christian pre-school, started by a group of Christian educators. They want the name "evangelique" in their name, so pray that hearts will change and the last paper will be signed. Mikaylah thinks school is easy!! I thought she would be disappointed, but she is just taking it all in stride. We are hoping that school will be able to open in January. At least the uniforms should be done by then!

To Glory

As far as family news goes…I was saddened, yet I rejoice to hear that my grandmother, Lila Muck, after almost 97 years of life passed on to glory to be with her Savior. While we celebrate her new life with no physical ailments, we will miss her here on this earth.
It was difficult to be away from family in the (as Mikaylah calls them, "Ohio States") during this time of remembering my grandmother. However my brother sent us a video of her memorial. Thanksgiving will not be the same this year without Grammy. But life here on earth was getting to be a big burden for her so we rejoice that she can enjoy heaven with our saviour.
Aside from that, things have pretty much fallen into a routine. We wake up with the kids, see them off to school, make snacks and bread and supper in the afternoon, dinner, devotions, and see them off to bed. However, in what seems to be a rather mundane day, is just the opposite! This schedule provides us all kinds of opportunities to talk with these kids, which is why we are here.
September was Ramadan, a month of fasting for the Muslims and two of our three African workers. We praise God that one of our workers, Jean, is a born again believer! But, during the month of Ramadan, we were able to strike up several conversations with Ladi and Mariame about why they fast from sunup to sundown.

Our kids continue to amaze us. I have to get on our blog more often because our kids just say the funniest things. Jayson is really starting to talk now. He knows 2 colors…lellow and puple(yellow and purple). John Kwak, one of the boys in the dorm picked some purple flowers and taught Jayson how to say purple and flower. Now, when we ask him to say flower, he says, “purple”. ☺
Mikaylah is getting very excited about starting preschool next month. It was supposed to be starting this month, but due to some complications, they will begin November 3. This is a preschool that has been started by Cornerstone, a group of mostly Nigerien teachers who are passionate about Christian education in Niger. It will be all French (and some Djerma) for her, so please be in prayer for her. I think she will enjoy very much once she gets into it. She has been learning some French from our workers as well. She has become very accustomed to communicating with the people here on campus.

I leave you this month with some more prayer requests.
1. Continued opportunities to talk with our workers about Christ.
2. Language…as always. Once we feel comfortable in French, we will start Djerma or Gormachi to talk better with our workers.
3. Mikaylah’s school which starts November 3rd.
4. Some happenings in the dorm that aren’t fun to deal with. Just pray that God supersedes everything that we do and that He will show His face to some of these kids who really need Him now.
We praise God for each of you and your faithful giving…especially during this whole economic “panic” in the States. Through all of that, I don’t think we have lost one supporter…praise God☺ Please continue to pray for our finances as we try to make ends meet being under supported as we head into 2009. The Canadian dollar has dropped against the US dollar and that takes more support away since about 30% of our support comes from Canada.
If you are considering giving to this ministry of raising up MK’s, you can do so online at www.ebm.org and go to the giving section. From there, just follow directions.
We thank God for each of you, for your prayers and support. Have a wonderful week☺

Tim, Janice, Mikaylah and Jayson
For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11
Address in Niamey: Sahel Academy, BP 10065 Niamey, Niger or Mission Evangelique Baptiste, BP 11324, Niamey, Niger

Aigoba

Jayson will be two years old in one month!! Hard to believe in some ways that two years have almost already gone by. We have been a little concerned for his lack of speech. He just learned how to say Papa a few weeks ago and has no sentences except "I go" and "me too" while copying his big sister!! Yesterday we were having lunch with Chris and Diane Marine and Jayson used his default word for what we thought was his attempt to say popsicle.... Aigoba. He usually tries to open the refridgerater and stands there saying "Aigoba, Aigoba" If Mariame, his babysitter is nearby she will give him a popsicle or a piece of cheese or a cookie... Yesterday Chris told us that "Aigoba" is the Dzerma word for "I want it" or "I like it". Poor kid, no wonder he is a late talker, he isn't just processing English, we knew he was surrounded by French because he was only six weeks old when we arrived in Quebec, but we had no idea he was also processing Dzerma, a language Tim and I do NOT know!!

WE WIN!!! WE WIN!!

So sorry we haven't been on the blog lately....like over a month. Things here in Niamey during September and October go a bit NUTS. That stands for Niamey Universal Tournament of Softball. Yes, for a month and a half, that means that we eat, drink, and sleep with softball. Now, those of you who know me must be thinking that this was a great thing for me. However, there is a lot of work put into all of this from practicing three or more times a week, playing scrimmage games, getting the field ready, organizing teams, etc. We actually had three teams from Sahel Academy this year. I am told that is a record. I was also told that since I am the dorm dad, I had to play and coach and organize, and drive, and ump, etc.(Yes,Peter, that was a run-on sentence!) While I had absolutely no idea of what I was getting myself into, it turned out to be a lot of fun. Two of our teams played in the social division, and my team, in the competitive. On Friday, the 10th of October, we began with a couple of games, but Saturday and Sunday are the big days. While we only had to play 3 games on Saturday, our youngest team had to play 4 games. Now, some of you players out there may be saying, big deal, I have played 7 games in one day before. Don't forget, this was all during the temperatures of right around 100 degrees. I never looked at the temp that day because I didn't want to be depressed.

Anyway, on to the real news...my team, comprised of mostly high school boys, one teacher, the director of the school, and myself. These boys really put it all together when they had to. I saw all of them really grow up as ball players. Their skills improved dramatically during the tournament. There were only 3 other teams there for us to compete against, but all of them were made up of men and women from around Niamey and Ouagadougou. There were some fantastic hitters from the embassy here and from Ouaga. We only had to play 5 total games to win the whole thing. Only once did I ever think we would not win. I told these guys 6 weeks ago that I thought we had all the makings of a champion. They sure made me look good!

We opened the tournament with a fairly easy win on Saturday morning. While that was fun, we really started getting into the drama of a tourny like this one. Our second game, against the Angels from Ouaga, had our guys looking like deer caught in headlights the first two innings. They scored 6 unanswered runs against us. But, as we took the field, we just simply said, one at a time and let's go have some fun with this. We chipped away and won 12-7 at the end. The following game was against the team that we knew best. Two of the boys dads played on this team from the embassy here. They had some Marines on their team with a ton of speed. Well, our worst fears were realized when they beat us 9-4. We had beaten this team before, but our bats just weren't swinging. So, we were #2 behind that team heading into the semi's. As it turns out, we had to play those Angels again. But this time, the boys had some confidence. However, we still fell behind and heading into the last inning, we were down by 5 runs. Sounds impossible, yes, but all I said was that nobody makes an out, we bat all the way around and win this thing. Several hits later, with no outs our boy Phil hit a triple with the bases loaded and the 6th and winning run crossed the plate and we were headed to the final games against the USA embassy team...again. What drama, after that game, you would have thought we were the Cubs who just won the World Series(or one playoff game:)) We had one hour to wait before the final game and our boys were flying high!

Needless to say, the embassy team stood no chance against our guys. Everyone hit this last game and just kept hitting, It was great fun. They only reason why they scored was because of an error and a questionable call, but that still didn't discourage us, we just went out and had a 2 out- three run rally.

We were behind in every game except for the last one. I guess we were a bit of the cardiac kids, and little too much for my old heart, but I am still alive today.

One thing our boys really wanted to do was to allow Jesus to be seen in our play and I think they accomplished just that. They were always encouraging to one another, the other teams and the umps. Way to go Sahel Suns! I thought as the last fly ball was going through the air, I began my celebratory run in from the outfield (before Ryan even caught it) thinking....for all you Reds fans....And this one belongs to the Suns!

Well, school is off and running. We have been at it for three weeks now. Lots has happened since then besides all these kids eating everything in sight! We have had lots of rain as you can see from some of the kids coming in from a mud fight during one such storm. We have had one case of Malaria the first week of school. Jayson and Mikaylah, of course, love having all their older brothers and sisters around. There is lots of wrestle time on the carpet!
Of course, since Jayson is the youngest in the dorm, he is often the one who is "dressed up". In this picture you see him posing as superman. So, he is trying to make it through the superfriends! And as you can see, Superman has changed a little bit with some of the girls hair things, His pappa is so proud.

We were able to enjoy the newly remodeled kitchen with some of our parents the first night they were all here to drop off their children. It was nice to chat with them all and get to know them as well as their children. It isn't often we get to sit down and just chat with the parents since they generally live several countries away!

The one picture is something that we had envisioned before we even started to build it. We wanted a counter to where the kids could kind of gather together around food, of course, and just talk with each other and get to know one another. That is happening all the time. In fact, so well, we are having some difficulty getting them all to bed at times:-)


We do praise God for each of these kids as all of them have their own very unique personality. They all do things so differently and yet alike. So far, so good...Thank you all for the prayers for us and for the kids in our dorm. We certainly do appreciate them so much.